First UN climate change report since 07

Climate change has the potential for “undermining crop production and driving up prices at a time when the demand for food is expected to soar,” according to the lead article promoted in The New York Times electronic announcement of online and newspaper news.

The newspaper information was pulled from a preliminary draft of a scientific report being produced by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This is a new report from the IPCC, which issued its last report in 2007. The article was the lead New York Times article for Dec. 19.

The New York Times reporter, Justin Gillis, expects the eventual final report will be more aggressive in suggesting a connection with reduced crop/food production as climate is projected to change in the coming decades. Crop production could be reduced “over all by as much as 2 percent each decade for the rest of this century, compared with what it would be without climate change,” the report could claim.

The newspaper account says the new IPCC report will “reflect a large body of research in recent years that has shown how sensitive crops appear to be to heat waves.”